AP Photo/Aaron Favila

On Saturday, the Filipino inmates who shot to international fame with a YouTube video of their “Thriller” dance in 2007 showed off their fancy footwork once again in a behind-bars tribute to their idol, The King of Pop Michael Jackson, who passed away on Thursday.

Dressed in orange prison-issued T-shirts and sweat pants, the inmates swayed and stomped outside the hilltop prison, behind thick stone walls in the central Phillippines.

The 1,500 inmates at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center — including prisoners and drug traffickers — took to the exercise yard, practicing their routine for nine hours Friday night for the show. They took breaks only to eat or when it rained, said professional choreographer Gwendolyn Lador, hired by the prison to teach the inmates the dance.

“I felt sad because we lost our idol,” inmate Wenjiel Resane, who plays Michael’s girlfriend in the video, tells The AP.

Crisanto Nieri, a 38-year-old who is serving seven years on drug charges, danced Jackson’s part in “Thriller.”

“Even as a kid, he was already my idol,” said Nieri, who is serving seven years on drug charges. “I am happy that our video became famous, but I feel some pressure to perform well.”

Other famous MJ numbers featured in the tribute include “Ben,” ‘‘I’ll Be There,” and “We Are the World.”